SCHAGHTICOKE >> It has been 160 years since the Melrose United Methodist Church was founded, but there is still a small, vibrant church community.

The community, centered around the small Church Street structure, celebrated their anniversary Sunday with a special service and brunch. Not every church holds a celebration for their 160th anniversary -- as opposed to more customary anniversaries, such as the 150th or 175th -- but the community of Melrose United chose to do so.

"To the people who have passed before and the people who have worked hard before, they give us an example of what it means to be faithful and in this time and age we need to keep a connection to that example -- it's challenging for people to remain faithful," said Reverend Virginia S. Deyo. "It was challenging for all of those 160 years, I'm sure, but it remains so."

Rev. Deyo, who is entering her third year with the church, noted that the Melrose community is "very welcoming, very faithful and very committed to their church," and to helping one another.

As an example of the church community's willingness to lend a hand, Deyo said that, when she fell one Sunday, she received several phone calls and emails before she had returned home to Mechanicville, and that those calls and emails continued for days.

Deyo is a relative newcomer to Melrose United, but some in the pews have been coming to Melrose for more than half a century. The Sunday service was a return to a familiar church and familiar faces for Dotti Requate, who grew up attending Mass at the church, and was married there in 1954.

After her nuptials, Requate moved to Pittstown and began attending a church in Johnsonville, Christ Church United Methodist, which was closer to her new home. Although she still lives aways from Melrose United, she made the effort to come back on Sunday for their anniversary service.

"It was a wonderful place to grow up," she said, of her early years in the church. "We came here because they had a very active youth fellowship and, when you're a teenager, that's what you need -- that's to get with the rest of the kids."

Although many churches are suffering from poor youth attendance, members noted that the church maintains a strong youth contingent through an active Sunday school.

As part of the anniversary, the church is also celebrating several new donations, including new pew cushions, new chandeliers, an improved kitchen, as well as new choir robes and candelabras that came from Emmanuel United, a combined Presbyterian and Baptist church in Mechanicville that closed its doors last year.

Melrose United Methodist is located at 20 Church St., in Melrose, New York. Primary services are held at 9 a.m. on Sundays. The church will be continuing the 160 celebration with their annual Voting Day Dinner on Nov. 5.